Nov 29, 2015

Few years ago, I made gingerbread men and women to celebrate Christmas. The old recipe was not shared on the blog because it wasn't beautiful enough until I find the perfect one up here.

These mini gingerbread men smell absolutely wonderful with the scent of cinnamon and ginger, which are also particularly low in sugar content due to the substitution of Natvia natural sweetener.

Optionally, the adorable cookies could be left without decoration, but trust me this royal icing recipe is very easy to whip up. Unless you don't want to consume raw egg white, replace it with melted chocolate!

To make cookies, in a bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger. Set aside

In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter, sugar and Natvia until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, beat until well combined.

Add flour mixture and mix until a smooth dough form.

Transfer the dough onto wax paper and press to flatten like a disc. Place in the refrigerator until cold and firm for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 170C. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and using a rolling pin, roll into 1/4inch thick.

Using a small gingerbread men cookie cutter, cut into small pieces. Re-roll and repeat with the scrape.

Place on prepared baking sheet, spacing cookies apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until firm around the edges.

Remove from oven and let them sit for 5 minutes before transferring on wire rack to cool completely until ready to frost.

How to make royal icing:

To make royal icing, in a large bowl whisk together egg white and lemon juice. Add sifted powdered sugar and whisk until smooth, with a consistency when ribbon of icing falls back and remains on surface for 5 seconds.

Transfer in a pipping bag fitted with a small tip, pipe two dots on the gingerbread men body and decorate with chocolate buttons. Let sit to dry completely before storing.

For this recipe, I used a warabimochiko, warabimochi flour, which is found at large Japanese grocery store. Using raw sugar is what I usually have on hand, but may be substituted with granulated sugar, brown sugar or even your healthy sweetener such as Natvia.